Asics Los Angeles Marathon (2014) – Part 9 (Struggling Through The Second Half)

March 17, 2014

Picking up from yesterday –

Once I got to mile 14, though, I realized, “Wait a second! I’m tired. Oh so tired. And hot. Oh my goodness. I still have 12 miles.”

I took a necessary short breather, stretching a bit on the side of the road. I was hoping to run a 6:30 marathon, and I knew a 3:30 half wasn’t hard. So, I was going to just try to walk that out. But I knew I didn’t want to waste too many minutes stretching.

After about 4, I got back on the course… and continued struggling through the next mile.

It was rough.

At mile 15, I saw a Starbucks with a grocery store inside. Tons of people were running in to use the bathroom, or pick up things. I was really wishing I’d brought a few dollars so I could buy a Gatorade. But alas, I hadn’t.

However, I did go up to the Starbucks and say, “may I please have the biggest glass of ice water you’ll give me?” In true awesome customer-service-centered Starbucks fashion, they gave me a Venti.

I must not have looked all the great. The barista asked, “Are you okay? Are you gonna finish?”

Well, obviously I’m gonna finish. Let’s not get silly here – which was basically what I told him with a smile. It’s just really hot. I thanks him oh so much for the water, and got back out there.

I continued walking, but I was just walking too slowly. If I kept sauntering along at 19, 20 minute miles, I was never join to finish!

At some point, I put on some musical theater and just started basically acting my way through the race.

As the crowd was thinning out, it wasn’t so such an obtrusive thing to make a few small hand gestures here and there in front of my body. And if I just put my facial expressions on, and had great forward-moving songs, my legs would just take me.

I probably looked like a crazy person. But I didn’t care. As long as I wasn’t in anyone’s way, I just wanted Idina Menzel’s characters to keep me moving forward.

I saw so many exhausted people stopping off to the sides to stretch or sit for a bit (which I will admit I did a second time). The sun was tough, and without Gatorade, it was an even bigger struggle!

But we were all making it. And the people cheering along the course were certainly helpful in getting that morale up – even if they did just see me mainly singing to myself instead of really giving them high-5s or anything (sorry, I still appreciated you).